Not all documentaries are grisly true-crime investigations. And as we head into the vacation season, it is good to see that Prime Video‘s library of docs features a good choice of fascinating and uplifting titles that may redeem your religion in humanity.
For this weekend, I’ve pulled a number of that I’ve cherished, together with one in regards to the weird world of Christmas tree retailers, a redemption story a couple of man and a wild cat, and a no-holds-barred exploration of the filthiest joke ever written.
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The Retailers of Pleasure
The Merchants of Joy, a brand new documentary on Prime Video, is filled with Christmas spirit, simply not that form of Christmas spirit. It is story, in regards to the 4 households that compete within the cutthroat New York Metropolis Christmas tree enterprise, has given me a complete new perspective each time I move a Christmas tree stand arrange in a parking zone, road nook, or behind a dice van someplace.
However it’s the distinctive and attention-grabbing households that make this doc carol. It follows Gregory Walsh, who owns and runs Greg’s Timber along with his son, Little Greg; George Schmidt, a former worker of Walsh’s who’s now one in all his opponents; Vermont’s Jane Waterman and George Nash, 49-year homeowners of Uptown Christmas Timber, and their daughter Ciree, a recovering addict who’s turned her life round; and Heather Neville, proprietor of NYC Tree Girl, who additionally labored for Schmidt till going out on her personal (she additionally sells scorching sauce and unique meats within the Jersey Shore). Oh, however there’s another man—the elusive Kevin Hammer, the biggest vendor of Christmas timber in NYC, and a supply of hysteria for everybody. “There’s this entire legend within the business that he is some form of terrifying Keyser Söze form of man,” says Nash. This doc had me at Keyser Söze.
Because it seems, New York’s Christmas tree business has a wild previous stuffed with ruthless maneuvers, bullying, and even some Mafia ties. Viewers get to tag alongside by the vacation season, from these “frenemy” households stabbing one another within the again over territory, controlling the tree provide, and different techniques to reign supreme in New York.
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Wildcat
I’ve typically been fascinated by movies and documentaries like Verner Herzog’s Grizzly Man, the place people try and stay in concord with wild animals like bears and large cats. As riveting as they’re, they not often finish properly. With Wildcat, nonetheless, its story fortunately does. On this uncooked and emotional nature documentary from 2022, we observe Harry Turner, a younger British struggle veteran, whose tour in Afghanistan left him traumatized and riddled with PTSD. Looking for a method by the ache, he ventures deep into the Amazon rainforest, the place he meets wildlife biologist Samantha Zwicker, who’s working a rescue middle.
Collectively, they elevate Keanu, an orphaned child ocelot, whose large stuffed-animal eyes will completely soften you. It is emotional, I am not gonna lie, however watching Turner and Zwicker create a bond with the little cub, as they educate Keanu to hunt, climb, and able to be launched again into the wild, is the palate cleanser all of us want. “He is saving me, and I am saving him,” Turner says, and it is true. The journey of Wildcat is bearing witness to the rehabilitation of a misplaced man as he overcomes deep emotional trauma to emerge on the opposite facet, anew.
In the event you like docs like My Octopus Trainer, Wildcat will strike the identical nerves. It is visually gorgeous, has loads of “aww” moments (it’s rated R, although, so not for teenagers), and its 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating is an correct illustration of its high quality.
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The Aristocrats
What is the world’s dirtiest joke? In the event you ask a few of the best comics to ever do it, and this glorious documentary from 2005 does, they’re going to all inform you an identical factor—it is “The Aristocrats.” So what is that this fabled joke? Directed by Paul Provenza and co-produced by Penn & Teller’s Penn Jillette, The Aristocrats is a deep dive right into a joke so filthy and vile that it is solely spoken about, and instructed by, comedians to different comedians, often in non-public.
I clearly cannot inform the joke right here, however this enthralling documentary brings in heavy hitters, together with George Carlin, Sarah Silverman, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, and extra, to deconstruct the lore behind the well-known joke and inform their very own variations of it. The Aristocrats is not only a doc a couple of filthy joke, it is an examination of comedy—what’s a joke? What’s off limits? How do comics push boundaries? What can occur in the event that they do?
The critically acclaimed comedy movie blew my thoughts once I first noticed it many years in the past, and I hadn’t watched it since then once I revisited it lately. The telling of the joke is artwork itself, with top-of-the-line to ever do it being Gilbert Gottfried. Watching The Aristocrats appears like a secret membership right into a world of comedy you by no means knew existed.
The Aristocrats
- Launch Date
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January 1, 2005
- Runtime
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89 minutes
- Director
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Paul Provenza
Nevertheless you prefer to spend your weekends, this choice of docs has a bit one thing for everybody—kindness, catharsis, comedy, and Christmas timber? Netflix might have a library of documentaries that is arduous to beat, however Prime Video all the time surprises me with its choice, and it is free if you happen to’re a Prime subscriber.
- Subscription with advertisements
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Sure, by way of Prime membership or $9/month
- Simultaneous streams
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Prime Video has a big quantity of content material to look at. The opposite Amazon perks are a bonus as properly.
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